Values, Empathy, and Fairness across Social Barriers (Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences)

What makes suicide bombers capable of sacrificing themselves for a belief? Why do members of one race believe they are superior to another? How do subliminal messages affect the outcome of political polling?

Using the tools of neuroscience and social science, researchers have learned a great deal about the brain's role in human behavior and interactions. This volume is the proceedings of the first Barcelona Social Brain Conference, which was organized by the New York Academy of Sciences, the Fundació Catalana per a la Recerca i la Innovació, the Càtedra UAB "el cervell social," and the European Science Foundation. Through a neuroscientific lens, the invited chapters examine the human qualities of empathy, sacred values, and cooperation, and focus on the ways in which what they learn can be used to understand human conflicts.

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